Democrats Begin the Long, Tortuous Retreat from Obamacare

Fiscal Times ^ | October 1, 2015 | Ed Morrrisey

[lbryce]

After 5 years, two midterm disasters, and a rollout that reminded Americans why they fell out of love with big government in the 1970s, reality has finally begun to dawn on some Democrats about Obamacare. With open enrollment about to start and a third straight round of premium spikes about to hit voters’ pockets, the Democrats’ leading presidential candidate has offered a “major break” with the Obama administration on its signature domestic policy achievement.

Hillary Clinton will speak out against the so-called Cadillac tax on high-coverage health care plans, as early as this week, according to The New York Times. The politics on this are complicated, and not entirely focused on health care; in fact, this has more to do with the health of Clinton’s struggling and scandal-plagued campaign. Even so, the Cadillac tax on high-coverage plans is a key to Obamacare, both fiscally and philosophically, and Clinton’s coming attack on it shows just how much of an albatross the entire system has become for her party.

Related: An Obamacare Change to Medicare Is Backfiring

The nature of this strategic decision becomes plain from Maggie Haberman’s report. Clinton reached out to Randi Weingarten to inform her of this decision. Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers and an important player in the labor movement. Unions have long opposed the Cadillac tax, having spent decades demanding top-notch coverage for their members. The tax applies a 40 percent fee on benefits above a certain level, potentially costing labor unions hundreds of millions of dollars that they would rather spend elsewhere – say, on Democratic presidential and Congressional campaigns.

Why make this particular sop to Big Labor now? Clinton recently announced her opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project backed by unions in anticipation of the skilled labor required ....

[lbryce]

So, is this finally something about The Obama Administration that will allow me to gloat wholeheartedly?

[Rebel_Ace]

They will March lockstep towards single payer, nationalised health care.

[W.]

The democrats are as the Nazis retreating from the battle of Stalingrad. Would it be their numbers were reduced commensurately.

[fwdude]

This is nonsense. It was all PLANNED, the failure and all.

The next narrative will be, "see, we need single payer, all-government oversight."

[SeeSharp]

Her proposal doesn't undermine Obamacare at all. It just relieves the unions of a tax. It transfers that cost onto the backs of the taxpayers. They are still going to spend the same amount of money. It just won't be the unions paying.

The only reason the cadillac tax was there to begin with was to help Obama claim Obamacare wasn't a budget buster. Now that they have Obamacare enacted it is to be expected that they'll try to make it as easy as possible on their friends.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Yep, and Trump will give them single payer.

[PGR88]

Like Napolean’s retreat, lets hope they all die on route.

[WyCoKsRepublican]

Kansas state employees will experience higher premiums and co-pays as Obamacare spreads like locusts destroying everything in their path. Does my heart good at least that a lot of the state's employees are RATS.

[LostPassword]

they aren't retreating from obamacare. they are retreating from paying for obamacare they way they promised they would. The cadillac tax was needed to keep the cost under amount that Obama promised. A side benefit was that it would punish "the evil rich" with their good health insurance but they did it so fast they forgot to exempt unions. Now Hillary is trying to appease unions by getting rid of it.

If they were to say
we need to eliminate the cadillac tax and cut subsidies by the $XX billion we told you we'd collect from the cadillac tax
then you could say they are retreating. But they just want to shift the cost from those with cadillac plans (specifically union plans) to taxes. It's too late to only exempt unions so they'll give it to everyone.

[Hotlanta Mike]

So how would President Clinton eliminate the Cadillac tax without the consent of Congress?

[stylin19a]

Hillary Clinton will speak out against the so-called Cadillac tax on high-coverage health care plans,

tryin to woo back the unions ?

[tanknetter]

Clinton is counting on never actually having to keep this promise.

The GOP will keep the House and most likely the Senate, if she wins. They won’t get rid of the Cadillac tax without trying to get rid of Obamacare entirely. Thats a dealbreaker for the Dems, but something the GOP needs to
pass to keep the base appeased on the matter. something the GOPe knows.

It’s all just a Potemkin March to all involved.